Salini wins Turkish high-speed rail project

The Turkish government has awarded Salini Impregilo a €530 million contract to build a high-speed railway line, running from Istanbul to the Bulgarian border.

The Italian engineering group will take a 50.01% stake in the project, as part of a joint venture with Turkish builder Kolin İnşaat Turizm Sanayi ve Ticaret.

Working under the auspices of the Directorate General of Turkish State Railways, the consortium will build 153 km of double track, suitable for carrying trains that can achieve speeds of up to 200 km/h.

The project also includes electrification, signalling and other auxiliary civil works related to the contracted section of the line.

Some 80 million m3 of earth is expected to be moved as part of the rail line’s construction, and the contract guarantees the availability of machines to complete this aspect of the work.

When completed, the line will become part of the European Union’s Trans-European Transport Network’s (TEN-T) Orient/East-Med corridor, which aims to connect Central Europe with ports in the North Baltic, Black and Mediterranean seas.